Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue.
Speaker:And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
Speaker:These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
Speaker:things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
Speaker:If you'd like to submit a topic,
Speaker:DME over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped happy new year,
Speaker:and welcome to the first tips and talk episode of 2022.
Speaker:I'm thinking you're in celebration recovery mode right now,
Speaker:all the making,
Speaker:selling, shipping,
Speaker:decorating, shopping,
Speaker:wrapping, cooking,
Speaker:and partying has all been done.
Speaker:Wonderful new memories have been created.
Speaker:And now it's time to sit back and warmly reflect on
Speaker:it. All I'm envisioning being wrapped up in a Sherpa blanket,
Speaker:holding a warm mug of steaming cocoa marshmallows included with a
Speaker:sugar cookie scented candle burning nearby.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:there's a time and a place for everything,
Speaker:and this is the time to refuel,
Speaker:but do it quickly because I have some new festivities coming
Speaker:your way and we're going to be celebrating you last year.
Speaker:I officially registered a national day,
Speaker:honoring all the makers in the world.
Speaker:It's called national bakers,
Speaker:crafters makers day.
Speaker:It's marked in the national day archives as celebrated on January
Speaker:21st. But we are going to be celebrating all month long.
Speaker:You'll hear a lot more about this as we continue through
Speaker:the month today,
Speaker:I want to share with you the development of the theme
Speaker:and the corresponding logo we're using for national bakers crafters.
Speaker:Maker's day.
Speaker:This year,
Speaker:I'm thinking that my experience will give you ideas and how
Speaker:to move through this type of a project.
Speaker:If you're in a place where you're either creating a logo
Speaker:for the first time or updating or completely replacing an existing
Speaker:logo. Now I've done my fair share of logo development in
Speaker:the past,
Speaker:never using standard clip art.
Speaker:As you know,
Speaker:I'm a stickler for that always original imagery.
Speaker:I won't go down a rabbit hole here with that right
Speaker:now, but this time I approached it differently,
Speaker:I decided to employ a professional artist,
Speaker:someone that I've been working with on other projects to do
Speaker:our logo in the process.
Speaker:I learned something that made a huge impression on me,
Speaker:which is actually what prompted this tips and talk episode about
Speaker:image development.
Speaker:I'll share that revelation with you in a minute,
Speaker:but let me back up here.
Speaker:National bakers,
Speaker:crafters makers day celebrates makers of all sorts hobbyists,
Speaker:and those who run a business,
Speaker:selling a handmade product this year will be the second time.
Speaker:This day is recognized and I'm bumping it up a notch,
Speaker:knowing that I couldn't accomplish this alone.
Speaker:I recruited a committee.
Speaker:I asked for volunteers from within gift biz breeze,
Speaker:the Facebook group to help out.
Speaker:We're now a team five strong working towards making this day,
Speaker:celebrating you special.
Speaker:Our first task was to decide on a theme for the
Speaker:festivities after much discussion on the background and intentions.
Speaker:For the day,
Speaker:we brainstormed a number of ideas and settled into the theme
Speaker:of handmade heals the world.
Speaker:It takes into account the vibe we're after and the warm
Speaker:emotions making and receiving handmade pieces provokes.
Speaker:And the domain was available to voted in by unanimous decision
Speaker:and with the help of GoDaddy domain registration,
Speaker:we were on our way to work on image creation.
Speaker:We put our brainstorming hats on again.
Speaker:Gosh, I have to tell you,
Speaker:this is where multiple perspectives on a task brings such a
Speaker:value. There were so many different ideas presented some hand drawn
Speaker:on paper,
Speaker:some screenshot images for inspiration and even just commentary,
Speaker:which sparked even more ideas.
Speaker:Personally. I loved all the angles and variations that arose from
Speaker:the same base information.
Speaker:It was really fascinating.
Speaker:Next I brought in Sonya paws to be the professional artist
Speaker:for the job.
Speaker:And this is the point where I think things get most
Speaker:relevant for you.
Speaker:I'll share the steps we took from here with Sonia's professional
Speaker:guidance to get to the image that we have today.
Speaker:Sonia first took a look at all the ideas presented by
Speaker:the committee.
Speaker:We already had our theme,
Speaker:which directed the visual.
Speaker:As a reminder,
Speaker:the theme is handmade.
Speaker:Heals the world based on that,
Speaker:you can probably guess some of the image ideas.
Speaker:We were reviewing things like a world being held within outstretched
Speaker:hands, a world with a heart,
Speaker:all sorts of things,
Speaker:dealing with hands and Globes and hearts.
Speaker:This is the point where Sonia said something that I've never
Speaker:heard before,
Speaker:but it made so much sense.
Speaker:She explained that this is often the spot where people get
Speaker:stuck in logo creation,
Speaker:thinking that the image has to specifically represent the name instead.
Speaker:So when you explained that the best approach is for the
Speaker:image to compliment or enhance the words,
Speaker:not duplicate them.
Speaker:Does this land with you?
Speaker:Like it did me images should compliment not necessarily duplicate your
Speaker:business name.
Speaker:Okay. I get that.
Speaker:In some cases,
Speaker:the logo does match the name,
Speaker:like think of apple,
Speaker:but it doesn't always have to like Nike's swoosh a clearly
Speaker:recognizable image known everywhere with this new insight.
Speaker:We moved to,
Speaker:to step two,
Speaker:which was concept drafts.
Speaker:Sonya took a couple of days to let her mind ruminate
Speaker:on all that.
Speaker:I told her a creative mind,
Speaker:needs time to do its thing.
Speaker:And I'm sure you've experienced this too.
Speaker:You sit down to do something creative and the ideas just
Speaker:don't come to you right then and there.
Speaker:But later in the day,
Speaker:when you're doing something totally unrelated to it,
Speaker:all the perfect idea presents itself.
Speaker:That's how Sonia works.
Speaker:And with that,
Speaker:she came back to me with four pencil sketched concept drafts.
Speaker:We had a zoom call to go over all the options.
Speaker:And this is why I love working with Sonya so much.
Speaker:We both had a hands down favorite and luckily it was
Speaker:the same one.
Speaker:So decision made,
Speaker:we had the design next came colors since we've been working
Speaker:together for a while,
Speaker:Sonya knows my brand colors and the colors I generally stay
Speaker:away from.
Speaker:But even though national bakers crafters maker's day originated from gift
Speaker:biz on wrapped.
Speaker:It doesn't need to stay completely true to those colors.
Speaker:Sonya brought forth six different color schemes,
Speaker:and I have to say it was a tough decision immediately.
Speaker:I gravitated to one color set an hour later,
Speaker:I liked a different one.
Speaker:Then I went back to the first one.
Speaker:At one point I was going to choose two and go
Speaker:to the committee for a vote.
Speaker:But then again,
Speaker:after letting it sit for a bit,
Speaker:the obvious color scheme choice presented itself,
Speaker:there was no second option.
Speaker:And I'll explain why after I finish up with these steps,
Speaker:okay, with the design and colors selected.
Speaker:Now it was time to get legal.
Speaker:Sonya drafted up the contract for me to review and sign.
Speaker:As I said,
Speaker:I've been working with her on other things.
Speaker:So we've already reviewed the legal issues before,
Speaker:but each new project needs a new contract.
Speaker:I'm leasing use of the artwork in these cases.
Speaker:I don't own it.
Speaker:My exclusive rights to this design though goes for 30 years,
Speaker:plenty of time,
Speaker:but the ownership and copyright of the art still resides with
Speaker:Sonia. Some artists retain ownership and some handed over to you.
Speaker:So this is something to look at.
Speaker:If you go this route with any image creation,
Speaker:other things in the contract include how I'm allowed to use
Speaker:the images.
Speaker:The specific wording required to give Sonia credit for her work.
Speaker:Things like that.
Speaker:Finally, delivery of the images was done through a shared Dropbox
Speaker:folder. And the image format was a dot PNG.
Speaker:If you're doing a company logo,
Speaker:most businesses will provide you with multiple format.
Speaker:But for my purposes,
Speaker:this will suffice upon signing the contract and the delivery of
Speaker:the logo that closes the book for the design development project.
Speaker:Let me summarize these steps for you.
Speaker:Again, first giving initial input,
Speaker:second, reviewing a few concept,
Speaker:drafts and deciding on one specifically,
Speaker:then bringing in the color variations.
Speaker:And once all that's put together and the image is created,
Speaker:you finalize with the contract.
Speaker:And then of course the delivery of the image.
Speaker:Now let me explain to you the logo,
Speaker:since this is an audio podcast and you can't see it
Speaker:right here.
Speaker:If you'd like to though,
Speaker:you can go over to handmade,
Speaker:heals the world.com
Speaker:where you'll see all the information about the day and right
Speaker:there on the top sits our beautiful logo.
Speaker:You'll see how we encompassed the meaning of the theme.
Speaker:Handmade, heals the world without duplicating the words.
Speaker:It's a little bit hard for me to explain here.
Speaker:I'd really love for you to go over and take a
Speaker:look, but let me do my best.
Speaker:The basic image is a heart,
Speaker:but when you look deeper,
Speaker:you'll see that there are multiple hearts inside the overall outline.
Speaker:I'm not sure yet how we'll play off that,
Speaker:but it presents an opportunity.
Speaker:Additionally, the world is represented inside the heart in different colors,
Speaker:blue for the water green,
Speaker:for land and yellow for the sun,
Speaker:along with the little pink heart of love.
Speaker:See handmade,
Speaker:heals the world.
Speaker:It's perfect.
Speaker:The committee loves it and I smile every time I look
Speaker:at it,
Speaker:a most beautiful logo image to honor you and your special
Speaker:day for more information,
Speaker:it's all there for you@handmadehealstheworld.com.
Speaker:And you'll hear more about the day in the next tips
Speaker:and talk episode.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
Speaker:And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
Speaker:sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
Speaker:of yours.
Speaker:Share your handmade products with us.